Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi all,
I was just wondering having spent a lot of time this weekend up the lottie and noticed the absence of buzzing whether anyone has had any broad beans set yet. I guess they need the bees due to the shape of the flowers, all the currants and gooseberries are fine but the beans are a bit of a worry.
Can anyone reassure me that there are plenty of pollinators out there.

Hilary

Hi Hilary

For what it's worth, I'm currently picking a huge crop of broad beans from a couple of dozen plants overwintered in the polytunnel. It was very cold when they started flowering and I saw very few pollinators, but they must have been around, flies etc and the odd very busy bumble bee.

Hilary, our first broad beans (Witkiem Manita) are flowering now but, in spite of the lovely sunny and still weather yesterday and today, I have hardly seen any insects on them. Last year the set was lousy but the weather around flowering time was very unfriendly, so I was hoping for better things this year.

There was a fascinating article by John Lister-Kaye in yesterday's Sunday Telegraph ("Worried about more than weather") which attributes the lack of insects to the proliferation of chemicals from plastics, deodorants, printing ink etc etc. It makes very interesting reading and I, as a complete non-scientist, can really see how we are slowly but surely poisoning the atmosphere.

Thanks Monika. I will try to get hold of a copy of the article and reassuring to know that somehow the pollinators are out there.

Hilary